TechEd 2011–Day 2

One good thing about my hotel room – the shower is tall enough that I don't have to do the limbo to wash my hair. I've stayed in much fancier places that can't get that right!

First session today was another non-developer one – SEC306 Operations Manager 2012: New Features. This started off looking like it was going to be a "death by PowerPoint", but they finally got into some demos. Looks like a good tool, and they even showed what it can do for your in-house apps, so there was some developer interest after all (see photo showing example diagnostics from an app failure).

I then got to finally see the infamous Chris Walsh present WPH306 What's new for Windows Phone 7.5 Games Developers XNA and Silverlight.

Next up was my second Instructor-led lab – "Build Your First Windows Phone 7 Application". Again we had more interest than we could cater for. Great to get lots of positive feedback, especially on how easy it was to develop the applications using Visual Studio. Also, as this lab had to run on the PC hardware (because we were using the phone emulator), we had no complaints of slowness that have plagued the other labs.

After lunch, I just managed to get a seat to see Anthony Borton kind of present DEV309 Visual Studio vNext Directions. I say "kind of" as because of restrictions imposed by Microsoft, Anthony had to change his content at the last minute and rely on videos from Brian

Back to helping out in the hands-on labs for the rest of the afternoon, except for the last bit, as I was asked to run a repeat of the "Microsoft ASP.NET MVC 3: Fundamentals" Instructor-led lab. A smaller group this time, but very keen and some good discussions on how they might adopt MVC for their web projects.

After this, the convention centre was transformed into the "fun factory", with different areas laid out with X-Box games, go-kart racing, table tennis, basketball and other stuff, plus lots of yummy food for tea.


TechEd 2011–Day 1

A thundery wet night last night. Glad I brought my spray jacket, but even then I got pretty wet walking home. Wednesday morning the storm had gone and we were left with a beautiful clear day. First up, I caught most of Adam Cogan presenting DEV316 - 15 rules to developer heaven. Some interesting thoughts on using addins for TFS to get better visualisation of progress (this will improve in v.next), and using screenshots or screencasts to verify work is "done". Also the idea of user stories including acceptance criteria. Next was my first Instructor-led Lab – "Microsoft ASP.NET MVC 3: Fundamentals". It turns out this was probably one of the most popular labs of the conference, and unfortunately we had to turn a lot of people away. After the lab, I checked out Rick Claus presenting SRV305 - Diagnosing the Diseases of DNS. Yes, my main focus is development but it can be useful to have some understanding of related areas. After lunch, I caught Reid Purvis and Sashank Pawar doing DAT309 - Virtualising SQL Server with Hyper-V. Time for a quick bit of afternoon tea, then I was helping in the hands-on labs for the rest of the day. Before heading back to the hotel, I enjoyed catching up with Narelle and the kids, and then my parents in two Skype conversations. My youngest asked "would you like to come home Daddy?" – now that does tug at your heart strings. I'll be home soon.

TechEd 2011–Day 0

It was a very early start for me Tuesday morning, waking up at 4:15 am in order to get to the airport for the 6 am flight to Coolangatta via Sydney. (A big thanks to my brother-in-law David, who also got up early to give me a lift!)

The flights went smoothly. We were a bit delayed landing in Sydney, so I was in a rush to get to my connecting flight. It was a relief to discover that it was the same plane, so no risk of missing it or losing my luggage. 😀

I caught the Gold Coast Tourist Shuttle from the airport to my hotel – probably half the price of a taxi and just as convenient.

I'm staying at Ipanema Holiday Resort. At about 1.2km, it's the furthest I've been from the convention centre, but it's a pleasant 10 minute walk so that's fine. Plus, as I'm paying for this trip myself, the price fitted my budget.

After registration, I had a "Technical Learning Guide" briefing meeting. It was good to see quite a few familiar faces from last year.

Something new this year was the addition of two "Kick-off" sessions preceding the keynote. I attended the "Developer Kick-Off", which included some highlights on Windows Phone, Visual Studio v.Next and Azure (specifically GreenButton's Pixar in the cloud service).

The keynote was probably one of the better ones I have seen. It was hosted by Adam Spencer (ABC TV personality and pure math fan), who was great, and I'm only glad he didn't try and show us all the digits of the largest known prime number. He was joined by Jarod Green (creator of the Beached Az cartoons) and Jane Cockburn (Senior Product Manager at Cochlear)

I did think it was ironic that there were so many mentions from the keynote speakers of developing software, when in reality the 'developer' portion of TechEd has seemed to be sidelined in the last few years by the organisers.

Following the keynote was a welcome reception, which provided some nice food for tea and my opportunity to grab a JetBrains Resharper T-Shirt.

About this time, the skies opened, and The Gold Coast experienced a nice little tropical downpour, complete with lightning. I'm glad I'd brought my spray jacket for the brisk, if slightly moist, walk back to the hotel room.

A phone call to the family to talk to Narelle and the kids, then a bit of work before turning in for the night.